Chores

One of the sessions I attended at Teach Them Diligently was about the value of children having chores. Sometimes I have thought to myself that I needed to work on this area, thinking that because my kids weren't doing things like vacuuming or emptying the dishwasher that they weren't doing chores, but in thinking about it, things like taking their dirty dishes to the kitchen sink at the end of a meal really counts as a "chore" for a preschooler. Crystal Paine's policy with her three kids is that they each have as many chores as how old they are. Some people include things like brushing teeth and getting dressed as chores, but I think of those as personal care skills rather than chores.

Ian's four chores:
1. Clean up his room and make his bed each day
2. Put away his clean clothes after I do the laundry and put dirty clothes in the hamper every day
3. Help clean up toys each day
4. Take dirty dishes to the sink and cup to the refrigerator

Nadia's chores:
1. Clean up her room and make her bed each day
2. Put away her clean clothes after I do the laundry and put dirty clothes in the hamper every day
3. Help clean up toys each day
4. Take dirty dishes to the sink and cup to the refrigerator after every meal; she also helps with setting the table from time to time
5. Bring the trash from the upstairs trash cans to the kitchen on Monday nights (she used to do this but hasn't done it lately...we need to get back into this routine)
6. Next month she'll be adding a sixth chore, and I've decided to make it vacuuming. When I told Nadia that she would get a new chore when she turned six, she suggested mowing the lawn. That's very sweet, but there's no way I'd approve that!

Oliver definitely likes to help out, albeit his "help" is actually a hindrance. I applaud his kindness though! For example, he comes running with the dustpan when he sees me sweeping and puts the dustpan by my pile (and usually spreads it around the floor - oops!) or when I go to take clothes out of
the dryer to fold them, he "helps" me by pulling things out of the dryer faster than I can fold them and drops them on the kitchen floor. At one year old my one "chore" for him is that I am trying to teach him to clean up toys. He is actually getting better at this with a lot of praise if I do it right along side him.

I had previously decided to give them an allowance each week. I almost never remembered to do this. My new plan is that if they want to earn some extra money, that they can do extra chores (ex. dusting) to help me out with something that usually is on my chore list and not theirs. Previously I have given Nadia a little money (ex. 50 cents) from time to time for watching Oliver while I take a shower.